briciole

sagne incannulate con lenticchie al sugo / with lentils in tomato sauce

elegant shape

I am not surprised that the authors of the book "Pasta by Design" were fascinated by the geometric shape of sagne incannulate. This pasta from Puglia, also called lasagne arrotolate and lagane incannulate, starts as a strip of pasta dough and ends as a long spiral that keeps its shape during cooking. On this page, you can see some lasagne arrotolate.

Reading the description in Orietta Zanini De Vita's Encyclopedia of Pasta made me search for additional information and then run to the kitchen to make some eggless pasta dough.

Zanini De Vita mentions the use of a round stick as a support for rolling the pasta, and I tried to use the thickest of the dowels I bought during my garganelli research, but I didn't have enough details to be able to reproduce her description.

Among the few videos that I found, the most helpful was this one, where the pasta strip is rolled around its long axis on the working surface to fold into a spiral. This other video shows a method that I find rather tricky, since the dough can stick to itself when rolled.

With the information acquired, I set about devising my procedure for making this beautiful pasta shape. The photo above shows my first sagne incannulate. And the video shows my hands at work:

 

Ingredients for the pasta:

• 100 g / 3.5 oz. semolina flour of good quality
• 50 g / 1.75 oz. warm water (I recommend weighing the water)
• A pinch of salt

Ingredients for the lentils:

• 100 g / 3.5 oz. / 1/2 cup lenticchie di Castelluccio, picked and rinsed (or other small lentils, like de Puy or black beluga)
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons / 270 ml water
• 1 garlic clove, unpeeled (uno spicchio d'aglio in camicia; literally: with the shirt on)
  
• 1 small bay leaf
• A pinch of sea salt

Ingredients for the tomato sauce:

• Olive oil
• A shallot, minced
• Leaves of a sprig of thyme
• A small garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 2 cups strained roasted tomatoes (thawed, if frozen)
• Sea salt, to taste

How to make the dough and shape sagne incannulate
Make a dough with the pasta ingredients and knead until nice and smooth. Let the dough rest, well wrapped to avoid drying, for half an hour or so.

Shape the dough into a thick disk, then cut it into quarters. Roll each quarter into a wide strip, thicker than when making tagliatelle. With my hand-cranked pasta machine, I roll the dough down until the third thinnest notch.

Zanini De Vita does not say how long the strips of dough are, while this page says 30 cm (12 inches). At the beginning, you may want to limit yourself to 10 inches (25 cm), so you can gain familiarity with the movements involved. I suggest not to exceed 12 inches (30 cm) of length.

Cut each piece of dough into strips about 5/8 inch (1.5 cm) wide. With one hand, roll each strip along its long axis to make a tight spiral. Use the other hand to guide the strip so it acquires the right shape. Make sure the working surface offers a bit of traction when you make the initial roll. If the surface is floured, the strip will slide rather then start folding onto itself.

Depending on the length of the resulting spiral, fold the rolled sagne incannulate in half or into thirds (like the bottom sagna in the top photo). Set them aside to dry on a kitchen towel or a floured wooden kneading board.

Knead together strips too short to roll and mishapen sagne and flatten the dough again into a wide strip to be cut. Repeat until all dough is used.

You need to let this pasta dry at least a day, longer if possible, before cooking. This will ensure that when you move it, you don't smash it and that the pasta will keep its beautiful shape when cooked. A kitchen towel under the pasta absorbs some of the moisture and so does a wooden kneading board.

How to cook the lenticcchie
Place all the ingredients for the lentils except the salt in a small pan. Bring to a boil and cook gently until lentils are tender. Check after 15 minutes and estimate the time necessary to complete the cooking (it should be a few more minutes). If the pan is dry, add a bit of hot water.

When done, add salt, stir and set aside.

version one-pot meal

How to prepare the tomato sauce
In a small saucepan, warm up a bit of olive oil, then add the shallot and thyme. Cook gently for a few minutes, then add the garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for 7-8 minutes. Adjust salt, to taste. Add the lentils to the tomato sauce (draining them first, if there is some water at the bottom of the pan) and stir well.

Note that this will make much more sauce than you need to dress the sagne made with the amount of dough above, but once you have the sauce ready, I am sure you'll find ways of using it, like making more handmade pasta.

How to put it all together
Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil, then toss the sagne incannulate in it. The time needed is a bit variable, depending on the size of sagne, how dry they are, etc., but it is not short, as the pasta is rather dry. Taste and stop the cooking when the sagne are ready. Pour a glass of cold water in the pot, stir and drain the pasta. Place in a bowl, then distribute some lentils in tomato sauce and toss. Serve immediately.

Alternatively, while the pasta is cooking, place some lentils in tomato sauce in a small skillet and warm up.

Note: When I prepared the batch that I then photographed, I used a good amount of lentils to make a piatto unico (one-dish meal). When I serve the pasta as an Italian primo piatto (first course), I use less sauce. 

Taste the pasta and stop the cooking slightly earlier than usual. Drain the pasta, leaving just a bit of water clining to it, then drop it into the skillet with the sauce. Stir well over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Plate and serve immediately.

Note: if tomato season is ongoing in your area, you can make tomato sauce using crushed tomatoes, adjusting the cooking time to get a sauce of the right consistency.

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This is my second contribution to the current edition of Pasta Please, a new pasta-centric event created by Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes and hosted this month by Simona of briciole. The theme this month is: homemade pasta.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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This is also my contribution to MLLA #59, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen, and hosted this month by Kalyani of Sizzling Tastebuds.

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Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

sagne incannulate

or launch the sagne incannulate con lenticchie al sugo audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

handmade pasta, lentils, tomatoes, semolina flour, Italian cuisine

Related articles

pezze rigate / handmade pezze rigate

annuncio / announcement: Pasta Please

ceci al pomodoro per FBAH / chickpeas with tomatoes for FBAH

"Nearly one in five children in America lives in households that struggle to put food on the table" (source).

This is not a statistics I just learned. I have been sensitive to the problem of food insecurity in this country for quite some time. The Alameda County Community Food Bank and Food for People are two organizations close to my heart and so is Share Our Strength.

The recent documentary A Place at the Table from Participant Media—the same studio that brought us Food Inc.—follows three families struggling with food insecurity, and sheds light on the problem of hunger in America. I believe hunger is a problem that can be solved and education and awareness are good first steps to solve it. I plan to watch the documentary soon (click here to watch the trailer). In the meantime, I have let my representatives in Congress know that I support protection of federal programs that aim to provide food to children and I hope you will do that as well.

For my participation to Food Bloggers Against Hunger, a day dedicated to raising awareness about food insecurity, I would like to mention two programs I am familiar with created by Food for the People: Plant a Row for the Hungry and Backpack for Kids. The former allows gardeners to share the bounty of their harvest who then get access to fresh produce, while the the latter ensures that children have nutritious food during the weekend, when they are not in school.

I am extremely lucky that in my life I have never suffered from food insecurity. However, I don't take food for granted. Both my parents experienced the food insecurity caused by WWII, so they instilled in me a deep respect for food in its entire life-cycle, from growing it to making sure that none of it is wasted.

chickpeas with tomatoes and dried apricots

The event organizer asked us to share a budget friendly recipe "featuring reliable pantry staples and ingredients that are accessible in most supermarkets." My contribution is a recipe from my archive that is flavorful, nutritious, and inexpensive: chickpeas with tomatoes and dried apricots (ceci al pomodoro con albicocche secche).

There is a story behind this recipe, which makes it particularly dear to me: you can read it in the original post. For my most recent rendition of the recipe I used dried chickpeas rather than canned ones.

Ingredients, using organic (bio¹) wherever possible (see note after the recipe):

• 1 cup / 6 oz. / 170 g dried chickpeas (see below for how to cook them) OR two 15 oz. cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• a cup of diced dried and unsulphured apricots
• one large onion (about 1/2 lb / 225 g), chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cumin  from seeds toasted in a dry skillet until they smell aromatic
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano (origano)
• 1 14.5 oz. can of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes OR fire-roasted diced tomatoes with their juice OR diced tomatoes with their juice
• 3 garlic cloves, minced

How to cook chickpeas
Drain the chickpeas. Put them in a saucepan, cover with 2 quarts of fresh water, and boil for 10 minutes. Skim off any foam that collects on the surface, then lower the heat. Add 1 onion, quartered, 2 sprigs of parsley and 4 garlic cloves. Optionally, add a 5-6 inch piece of kombu. Simmer, partly covered, until the chickpeas are almost tender, about 45 minutes. Add 2 teaspoons salt, and continue cooking until the chickpeas are completely tender but not mushy. Strain, reserving the broth for soups. (Source: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison)

How to prepare the dish
Place diced dried apricots in a small bowl and cover them with hot water.

Spray a large skillet or sauté pan with olive oil and warm over medium heat. Add the onion and cook in the warmed pan over low heat with cumin. Rub oregano with your fingers on the palm of your hand then add to the pan. After about 15 minutes, when the onion is translucent, add chickpeas, tomatoes and apricots, drained. If using crushed tomatoes, rinse empty can with 1/4 cup / 60 ml of water and pout that into the pan.

Raise the heat until the mixture starts bubbling, then lower the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, covered. Add garlic, cook another 5 minutes, uncovered, then turn off the heat, cover and keep warm until you are ready to serve the dish, the sooner the better.

I like to serve this with a side of polenta, though in my most recent rendition (shown below), I served it with a side of mixed greens (rainbow chard, kale and collard greens).

chickpeas with tomatoes and dried apricots

I am afraid I have no great photos, but trust me, this recipe is great.

Here are the prices for the main ingredients:

• organic dried chickpeas: $1.09
• organic diced tomatoes: $1.19
• organic onion: $0.70
• organic dried apricots: $1.06

The total is $4.04. I realize this does not include the cost of the spices and of the aromatics to cook the chickpeas. However, the dish serves more than one person or one person for more than one meal. One thing the price-conscious buyer does is keep an eye on sales. For example, the organic tomatoes I used were on sale when I checked the price, so I bought an extra can.

Please, take the time to visit other blogs participating in this initiative. They are listed on the Food Bloggers Against Hunger page on The Giving Table site. A great thank you! to Nicole for organizing this event. If each of us does something, together we can do a lot towards solving the problem of food insecurity.

¹ Short for: da agricoltura biologica (organically grown).

This is also my contribution to MLLA #58, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen, and hosted this month by Claire of Chez Cayenne. 

This post contains the roundup of the event.

---

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

ceci al pomodoro con albicocche secche

or launch the ceci al pomodoro con albicocche secche audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

chickpeas, garbanzo beans, apricots, tomatoes

fasole bătută

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

a creamy, flavorful spread

Would you like something creamy to spread on bread or crackers that is flavorful, nutritious and healthy? Look no further than my rendition of fasole bătută, a Romanian dish made with mashed beans seasoned with various aromatics (source). I read a few recipes and then went my own way, using what I had available and adjusting the quantities to my taste. This recipe suggests to fry the onions, which gave me the idea to caramelize shallots and use them as topping.

I really liked my version of fasole bătută: it's creamy and balanced in terms of flavor. (Note that I used a small amount of garlic, an ingredient that, when used raw, can easily overwhelm other flavors.)

Print-friendly recipe of briciole's recipe for fasole bătută

Ingredients:

• 3.5 oz / 1/2 cup / 100 g Paul's mix beans or other dried beans of choice, like cannellini or canario [see below how to cook beans with aromatics]
• 1 tablespoon / 15 ml Meyer lemon juice or 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• A teaspoon minced fresh dill (optional, but nice: this is my idea)
  
• 1 small garlic clove (or half of a larger one), peeled
  
• 1 tablespoon / 15 ml olive oil of good quality
• Sea salt and freshly milled pepper, to taste
• 85 g / 3 oz. shallots, thinly sliced (1/8 inch / 3 mm)
• 1/2 tablespoon / 7.5 ml olive oil of good quality
  

How to cook dry beans
The way I cook beans for further use comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). After soaking half a cup of dry beans for several hours or overnight in enough water to cover them by about an inch (I use two cups), empty the whole bowl into a saucepan and add

• Half of a small onion (or a quarter of a medium one), halved
• A bay leaf
• A small clove of garlic, sliced
• A couple of sprigs of fresh parsley

Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are ready. How long this takes depends on the type of beans and their freshness. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.

How to finish the dish
Drain the beans, leaving them a bit moist. This is one of the advantages of cooking beans by yourself (instead of buying canned ones): the cooking liquid is aromatic and can be used as part of the dish you are making. Place the beans in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add Meyer lemon juice, dill and garlic, and start the processor.

When the beans are partially mashed, add 1 tablespoon of oil slowly through the feeding tube while the processor is running. Scrape the side of the bowl with a spatula to make sure that the ingredients get processed properly.

Process until the beans are nice a creamy. Add more oil and/or a bit of the bean cooking liquid to reach the desired consistency. Taste and, if needed, add a bit more Meyer lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Refrigerate until use.

Warm up 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a small frying pan and add the shallots. Cook on gentle heat until caramelized. Sprinkle a bit of salt and stir.

Take the fasole bătută out of the refrigerator ahead of serving (so it is not consumed cold). Right before bringing it to the table, top it with the shallots.

with caraway rye bread

I served my fasole bătută with slices of caraway rye bread that I made using a traditional Romanian ingredient. More on this in a future post.

Addendum. Cristina of La cucina di Cristina wrote in the answer to my comment on her blog that this is the most beloved (and most eaten) dish in Romania. It is consumed as appetizer with bread, the way I did, or as side dish with a sausage, or as entrée with a side of pickled vegetables, like cucumbers and green tomatoes.

I totally understand the enthusiasm Romanians have for this dish. I made it again, doubling the quantities and using a mix of mint and thyme instead of dill and it was once again a delight to eat spread on bread.

This is my contribution to the fourth installment of the Abbecedario culinario della Comunità Europea (European Community Culinary ABC), an event organized by Trattoria MuVarA that will bring us to visit 26 countries of the EU (all except Italy) using the alphabet as guide. D like Drob (Romania) is hosted by Cristina of La cucina di Cristina.

This page contains Drob's recipe and the list of dishes contributed to the event.

If you'd like to participate, this post contains the complete list of countries, hosting blogs and deadlines.

[jump to Comments]

beans, spread, Romanian recipe

fasole bătută

una crema di fagioli deliziosa

Desiderate qualcosa di cremoso da spalmare su pane o cracker che sia gustoso, nutriente e saporito? Siete arrivati alla ricetta giusta: fasole bătută, un piatto rumeno a base di fagioli passati con aromi vari. Ho letto alcune ricette e poi, come al solito, ho prodotto una versione personalizzata in base ai miei gusti e agli ingredienti che ho a disposizione.  Questa ricetta (in inglese) suggerisce di accompagnare fasole bătută con della cipolla fritta e questo particolare mi ha dato l'idea di caramellizzare dello scalogno.

La mia versione di fasole bătută, cremosa e bilanciata nel sapore, mi è piaciuta molto. (Da notare che ho usato solo una piccola quantità di aglio, un ingrediente che, quando è usato crudo, fa un po' il bullo con altri sapori.

Ingredienti per i fagioli:

• 100 g fagioli cannellini secchi
• mezza cipolla piccola (o un quarto di cipolla media)
  
• una fogliolina d'alloro
  
• un piccolo spicchio d'aglio tagliato a fettine
  
• un paio di steli di prezzemolo

Altri ingredienti per la crema:

• 15 ml / 1 cucchiaio succo di limone Meyer o 10 ml / 2 cucchiaini succo di limone
  
• 1 cucchiaino di aneto finemente tritato (facoltativo, ma ci sta bene: idea mia)
  
• 1 piccolo spicchio d'aglio pelato (o mezzo spicchio, se un po' grosso)
  
• 15 ml olio EV d'oliva
  
• sale fino e pepe macinato fresco, q.b.
• 85 g scalogno tagliato a fettine fine (3 mm)
  
• 7,5 ml / mezzo cucchiaio olio EV d'oliva

Cuocere i fagioli
Il metodo che uso per cuocere i fagioli secchi viene da Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone di Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). Dopo aver tenuto in ammollo 100 g di fagioli per diverse ore o, meglio, tutta la notte, in abbastanza acqua da coprirli per 2,5 cm (io ne uso 475 ml), verso il tutto in una pentola e aggiungo gli odori.

Portare a bollore vivace e mantenerlo per 5 minuti, poi abbassare il calore e far cuocere, coperti, fino a quando i fagioli non sono teneri. Il tempo necessario dipende dal tipo di fagioli e dalla loro freschezza. Far freddare i fagioli nel liquido di cottura, poi rimuovere gli odori e scartarli. Lasciare i fagioli nel liquido di cottura fino a quando non li utilizzate.

Completare la preparazione
Scolare i fagioli, ma lasciarli un po' umidi. Questo è uno dei vantaggi di cuocere i fagioli da soli (piuttosto che comprarli in scatola): il liquido di cottura è aromatico e quindi utilizzabile nella preparazione del piatto per il quale aveto cotto i fagioli.

Versare i fagioli nel robot con la lama, aggiungere il succo di limone Meyer, aneto e aglio e far andare il robot. Quando i fagioli sono parzialmente passati, far scendere lentamente il cucchiaio d'olio dall'apertura sul coperchio del robot, mentreil robot continua ad andare. Raschiare la parete del robot per assicurarvi che gli ingredienti vengano passati bene.

Continuare fino a quando i fagioli siano ridotto ad una crema. Aggiungere un po' d'olio e/o di liquido di cottura dei fagioli per ottenere la consistenza desiderata. Assaggiare e, se necessario, aggiungere un po' di succo di limone Meyer. Condire con sale e pepe a seconda del gusto. Riporre in frigorifero.

In una padellina, scaldare mezzo cucchiaio di olio EVO e aggiungere lo scalogno. Cuocere a fuoco dolce fino a quando sia caramellizzata (abbiate pazienza, ci vuole un po'). Salare leggermente e mescolare.

Tirare fuori dal frigorifero il  fasole bătută in modo che non sia freddo al momento di servirlo. Prima di portarlo a tavola, distribuire un po' dello scalogno sulla superficie, a piacere.

con del pane di segale

Ho servito il mio fasole bătută con fettine di pane di segale preparato utilizzando un ingrediente tradizionale rumeno. Ma questa è una storia per un altro post.

Addendum: Cristina de La cucina di Cristina ha scritto questa nota al mio commento sul suo blog: "questa è la ricetta forse piu' amata (e mangiata :-) ) in Romania: come antipasto se si mangia su una fetta di pane, contorno se aggiungi una salsiccia fritta vicino, secondo vegetariano se la mangi cosi o con delle verdure in salamoia (specialmente con cetrioli o pomodori verdi in salamoia).

La seconda volta che ho preparato questa crema di fagioli ho raddoppiato le quantità e usato un misto di menta e timo invece dell'aneto. È davvero buona e posso capire come sia popolare in Romania.

Questo è il mio contributo alla quarta tappa dell'Abbecedario culinario della Comunità Europea, un evento organizzato dalla Trattoria MuVarA che ci porterà a visitare i 26 paesi della Comunità Europea (eccetto l'Italia) usando le lettere dell'alfabeto come guida. D come Drob (Romania) è ospitata da Cristina de La cucina di Cristina.

Quasta pagina contiene la ricetta di Drob e la lista dei piatti contribuiti all'evento.

 Se siete interessati a partecipare, questo post contiene la lista completa di paesi, blog ospitanti e scadenze.

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pane di segale con cumino dei prati / caraway rye bread

insalata di fagioli e tonno / bean and albacore tuna salad

the right company for kale pesto

The first scene brings us to a large rapeseed field. Our eyes luxuriate in the saturated colors of tall yellow flowers under a blindingly blue sky. As our mind wonders where such a beautiful place is, a painful sense of foreboding starts to distort the idyllic image. The young woman in the middle of the yellow ocean is panicking and the middle-aged men trying to reach her is anxious. The tension builds up as the camera switches vintage point until the scene goes up in flames — literally.

Sidetracked, the first episode of the BBC movies Wallander turned me into a terrified fan of the series. I could not stop watching that and the other two episodes of the first season: the movies held me in their power. But the horror of the deaths and crimes shown in them terrified me. A part of me wanted to flee, while the other part was glued to the couch, totally focused on the screen and the events shown on it.

I like everything about the movies and find the character of police inspector Kurt Wallander fascinating and poignantly rendered by Kenneth Branagh. After watching three movies, I had to read the novels by Swedish author Henning Mankell. I started from the first one Faceless Killers, which introduced Kurt Wallander to the public 23 years ago. In 1999 Mankell published The Pyramid, a collection of five stories that follows Wallander career from his beginning as a patrolman who helps solve a crime and gets moved into the investigative branch of the police, to the middle-aged, seasoned investigator recently separated from his wife that we meet in the first novel. (This is the book I am reading right now.)

Faceless Killers opens with a brutal, inexplicable murder of a farmer and his wife. As Wallander applies known investigative techniques, based on looking very carefully at the available information, spiced up with a bit of gut feelings and intuition, to find who did it and why, we follow his having to come to terms with his wife's recent decision to leave him.

The chaos without is reflected in the chaos within Wallander's life. Of course, a murder is not at the same level as a separation and an estranged daughter, Linda — whose suicide attempt he thwarted some years prior. However, the need to rationalize and act upon them has similarity. In the end, he cannot do anything to recreate the family nucleus, which in practice had ceased to exist for a while, but he can bring the murderers to justice, thereby resetting the scales, so to speak — albeit temporarily.

The novel includes more than one personal thread: Wallander's father, a painter, appears and his mental and physical decline requires attention. And Rydberg, Wallander's mentor and most trusted colleague, is diagnosed with cancer. The mood of the novel is definitely somber. And the fact that it starts in early January, in the dead of winter, adds some more darkness. The one steady light is Wallander's determination to solve the crime that haunts him. And he will do that.

bean and albacore tuna salad for Wallander

Often Wallander is so engrossed in his investigations that food and sleep are pushed aside, sometimes with dangerous consequences. One recurrent motif in the novel is his wish to start eating better, a resolution that gets repeatedly postponed to the following day when, supposedly, he will have more time to choose mindfully how to feed himself. But the healthy, nutritious salad in his thoughts never materializes on his plate, so I thought I would make one for him, one that, with a bit of planning, he could prepare for himself at home.

The combination of beans and canned tuna (we called it fagioli col tonno) reminds me of childhood summer vacations (vacanze estive), when salads of various kinds rotated on the menu. Its simplicity leaves room for interesting variations, like this one. The baby kale pesto with cashews I described yesterday smoothes the edges of the two bold flavors of beans and albacore. I cook beans whenever I have time and if I don't need them right away, I freeze them. The pesto can also be made in advance and frozen. Particularly useful are the two-tablespoon cubes you can obtain by freezing it in an ice tray. And canned albacore is an item always in my pantry, the kind I discovered some years ago: troll caught and preserved in its own juices, flavorful, low in mercury and without added ingredients besides salt.

Paul's mix, a medley of organic beans

Once you have the elements of the salad, combining them together takes little time and the result is satisfying and nourishing, just what Kurt Wallander and we all need.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for bean and albacore tuna salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup / 200 g  7 oz. Paul's mix beans or other dried beans of choice [see below how to cook beans with aromatics]
• One 7.5 oz. can troll- or pole-caught albacore preserved in its juices
• 2 tablespoons baby kale pesto with cashews

How to cook dry beans
The way I cook beans for further use comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). After soaking a cup of dry beans for several hours or overnight in enough water to cover them by about an inch (I use 3 1/2 cups), empty the whole bowl into a saucepan and add

• A small onion (or half of a medium one), halved
• A large bay leaf
• A large clove of garlic, or two small ones, sliced
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley
• A piece of kombu or other seaweed of choice (optional)

If it feels that there is not enough water to cook the beans well, add 1/2 cup. Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are ready. How long this takes depends on the type of beans and their freshness. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.

How to prepare the pesto
See the post baby kale pesto with cashews for the recipe.

How to assemble the salad
Drain the beans but leave them a bit moist. Open the can, empty it in a bowl, and with a fork flake the albacore to incorporate its juices. Add kale pesto and mix thoroughly to combine the ingredients. Serve (at room temperature).

To my palate, this salad does not need additional salt an neither does it need olive oil, since the albacore provides its oil. 

Besides choosing healthier dishes, hopefully Wallander will learn to enjoy the food, instead of just stuffing himself, which is what he does when eating on the run. When it comes to his relation with food, he can learn from Montalbano.

This is my second contribution to the 18th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started some time ago and that I continue to host.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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This is also my submission for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays, a weekly event created by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. 

This post contains the roundup of the event.

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Finally, this is my contribution to MLLA #57, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen, and hosted this month by PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

---

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

insalata di fagioli e tonno

or launch the insalata di fagioli e tonno audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

beans, tuna, kale, pesto, salad, cashew

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pesto di cavolo riccio novello con anacardi / baby kale pesto with cashews

fagioli gratinati / bean gratin

fagioli gratinati / bean gratin

the view from above

The smell of rosemary coming from the oven is always comforting, no matter what memory it awakens: roast chicken, maybe, or roast potatoes. It promises solid nourishment. Add to it some sage and you enter serious territory. When out of the oven comes a pie plate hiding something under a golden green-speckled crust, you may still not think right away at beans. Yet, that's what's underneath.

The December 2012 issue of Food & Wine (one of the two magazines to which I subscribe, the other being EatingWell) had a set of recipes for a crowd contributed by John and Tamar Adler. Among them, I singled out Cannellini Bean Gratin with Herbed Bread Crumb Topping.

I would not let the fact that I did not need to cook for a crowd stop me from trying the recipe. On the other hand, I did not want to cook a dish with 3 pounds of beans. So, I went about cutting down the recipe to a manageable size, making a few adjustments along the way.

The result was excellent: Rosemary, sage and garlic bring the beans to an intensely aromatic level and the bread crumbs provide needed texture contrast. I have already made this dish several times and I foresee doing it again: it has immediately become a household favorite. I have a good stash of beans and of my garlic in my storage space and my little garden keeps providing me with the fresh herbs I need, though it's winter, so I'am all set.

Paul's mix, a medley of organic beans

I love cannellini beans, but my everyday beans are Paul's mix, a locally grown, organic bean medley that I have already featured on this blog, which has proved to be perfect in all bean dishes I have prepared with it. Plus, it reminds me about the great variety of beans out there. 

These are the ingredients I use for the gratin:

• 1 cup (200 g, 7 oz.) Paul's mix beans (original recipe: dried cannellini beans) [see below how to cook beans with aromatics]
• 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (from my homemade bread)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley (prezzemolo)
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped sage (salvia)
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary (rosmarino)
• 1 garlic clove (2 if they are small)
  
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (senape di Digione)
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar (aceto di vino rosso)
  
• Sea salt

How to cook dry beans
I follow my usual method rather than that described in section 1 of the original recipe.

The way I cook beans for further use comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). After soaking a cup of dry beans for several hours or overnight in enough water to cover them by about an inch (I use 3 1/2 cups), empty the whole bowl into a saucepan and add

• A small onion (or half of a medium one), halved
• A large bay leaf
• A large clove of garlic, or two small ones, sliced
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley
• A piece of kombu or other seaweed of choice (optional)
  

If it feels that there is not enough water to cook the beans well, add 1/2 cup. Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are ready. How long this takes depends on the type of beans and their freshness. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.

How to prepare the topping and season the beans
I follow section 2 of the instructions, using 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. (Be extra careful here, since the bread crumbs burn easily.) Then, I follow section 3.

How to finish the dish
I follow section 4 of the recipe, with the following adjustments:

• Transfer the drained beans to a Pyrex pie plate (9.5-inch / 24 cm diameter) and lightly salt them, then stir.
• Set aside 1/3 cup of the cooking liquid and don't drain the beans completely.
  
• Whisk in the vinegar and 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil into the remaining garlic-mustard mixture, then stir in the reserved bean cooking liquid.
• Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top and bake on the top shelf for 15 minutes.

Serve warm.

the view from the plate rim

As noted in the recipe, you can cook the beans and toast the bread crumbs ahead of time.

This is my contribution to My Legume Love Affair 55 the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by the creator herself. This post contains the roundup of the event.

And I am submitting this recipe, bookmarked on my copy of the December 2012 edition of Food & Wine magazine, to Bookmarked Recipes #20, an event originally started by Ruth of Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments and now hosted by Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes. This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

fagioli gratinati

 or launch the fagioli gratinati audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

beans, bread crumbs

Related articles

zimino di fagioli / bean, mushroom and chard soup

torta salata "nella pentola" con pollo / chicken pot pie revisited

torta salata "nella pentola" con pollo / chicken pot pie revisited

"antique" pot pie (partially cut)

This is my first experience with pot pies. As far as I know, we don't have a name for it in Italian: torta salata nella pentola is the literal translation (pentola is Italian for pot). For my rendition, I used a small soufflé dish.

This pot pie was inspired by Susan The Well-Seasoned Cook, who after Thanksgiving suggested to use leftover turkey to make a pot pie. There was no turkey on our table on Thanksgiving: I cooked other dishes, a story for another day. I called my pot pie "revisited" because I honestly wasn't very attracted by the concept of pot pie until Susan's suggestion made me revisit my attitude — and with good results!

But her suggestion immediately sparked the idea of turning leftovers into something new and appetizing. Here is what I used:

• leftover roast chicken (pollo arrosto), mostly breast, diced
• leftover zimino di fagioli
• some "alternative" puff pastry (pasta sfoglia "alternativa")

I basically assembled the ingredients and put the result in the oven.

zimino di fagioli

Leftover zimino di fagioli + leftover roast chicken =

= the pie filling

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Take a 4 1/2-inch soufflé dish and add leftover zimino di fagioli. Do not overfill the dish.

Add some leftover roast chicken, mostly breast, diced and stir it in.

Take 1/4 of  the amount made by the recipe for "alternative" puff pastry (about 3 oz. / 83 g), roll it and use it to cover the dish, sealing well around the edge. (While I have not tried making the recipe with regular puff pastry, I don't see why it would not work with it.)http://www.typepad.com/site/blogs/6a00d835508b1869e200d8351b280f53ef/post/6a00d835508b1869e2017c3411e8eb970b/edit?saved=e

Make some egg wash: Lightly beat one egg with a tablespoon of water. Apply some egg wash to the puff pastry surface and put the dish in the oven. Bake until the surface is nice and golden (25 minutes or so). Let rest a few minutes before serving. The recipe makes a big portion or two small ones.

I took a number of photos of both pot pies I made when I took them out of the oven, and none of them was good enough. The nicest photo was taken after I had made a small cut on the surface to reveal the filling.

I am submitting this post to the November edition of Monthly Mingle that has Pot Pies as theme. The event was created by Meeta of What's For Lunch, Honey? and is hosted this month by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

torta salata "nella pentola" con pollo

or launch the torta salata "nella pentola" con pollo audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

pot pie, beans, chard, mushrooms, chicken

zimino di fagioli / bean, mushroom and chard soup

comfort food for rough days

For the current edition of Cook the Books, we are reading Heartburn by Nora Ephron (1983). I had heard about the book, so I was glad to see it on the Club's list. The writing is witty and engaging, and as a reader, you really want to know how the story will unfold. It was easy to go from cover to cover, chuckling here and there, and cheering at the final scene, when a lime pie is sacrified on the altar of justice.

While I don't want to diminish in any way the importance of the book from a sociological perspective (it was published almost 30 years ago), as a reader, I was not left wanting for more. The shallowness of the characters makes them forgettable.

One aspect of the novel that I liked a lot is the way the recipes are woven into the text, part of the narrative of the protagonist, Rachel Samstat, who is a successful cookbook author. I wasn't particularly inspired to try any of the the recipes, though. In reading the story, I was more focused on thinking: what would I do if something like that happened to me? "That" means discovering that your husband is in love and having an affair with a woman you know, while you are pregnant with your second child and the first one is a toddler.

When I am upset, cooking in and of itself is helpful, in that it makes me focus on something other than whatever it is that is causing an emotional tornado. And I tend to cook dishes that are comforting to me, something hot and with lots of vegetables, often a soup. The recipe I am presenting here is a classic example. I had made it a few months ago once and even took a photo (see below), but forgot to write down the details. I really liked it, so I went back to it.

last spring's version

The inspiration for my zimino di fagioli came from a recipe called zimino di ceci that I read on the Accademia Italiana della Cucina site. The dish is traditional in Liguria and it is made with chickpeas (ceci). This version of the recipe by Clifford Wright includes an explanation of the name of the soup, which is sometimes called ceci in zimino.

speckled bayo beans

I like chickpeas, but I prefer to use beans (fagioli), because I have access to a variety of great organic beans of local production, like the speckled bayo on the photo, which are very good in soups.

The original recipe uses dried mushrooms (funghi secchi) and that's what I used the first time I made the dish. However, I am not a big fan of dried mushrooms, so when I took up the recipe again, I decided to use a mix of fresh mushrooms, including some locally grown oyster mushrooms. The photo below shows the mushrooms on their growing medium.

farmed oyster mushrooms

I recently signed up for a special winter CSA share. I will tell you more about this soon. For now, suffice to say that I have access to some gorgeous rainbow chard (bietola). In the balance of ingredients, with respect to the original recipe, I chose to give much more prominence to the chard and a bit more to the mushrooms.

it doesn't get any fresher than this

Ingredients:

• 3.5 oz / 1/2 cup / 100 g speckled bayo beans; alternatively, I would have used borlotti or canario [see below how to cook beans with aromatics]
• Olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely chopped + half a leek, white and light green portion, cut into half moons and carefully rinsed (save the darker green portion to make broth or stock) [the original recipe calls for an onion, thinly sliced]
• A celery rib, finely chopped
• A garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 8 oz. / 225 g mixed fresh mushrooms: I used half oyster and half cremini, sliced
• 1 cup roasted strained tomatoes (thawed, since they were made last year and frozen) [the original recipe calls for 3-4 ripe tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped]
• 10.5 oz. / 300 g rainbow chard, weighed after the long stalks are removed (save those and use them to make a gratin)
• Sea salt, to taste

How to cook dry beans
The way I cook beans for further use comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). After soaking half a cup of dry beans for several hours or overnight in enough water to cover them by about an inch (I use two cups), empty the whole bowl into a saucepan and add

• Half of a small onion (or a quarter of a medium one), halved
• A bay leaf
• A small clove of garlic, sliced
• A couple of sprigs of fresh parsley

Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are ready. How long this takes depends on the type of beans and their freshness. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.

How to cook the soup
Warm a bit of olive oil in another saucepan, then add shallot, leek and celery and stir well. Cook for a few minutes, then add the garlic.

After a couple more minutes, when the garlic smells fragrant, add the mushrooms and stir. Turn up the heat a bit. When the mushrooms start releasing water, stir well for a minute, then add the tomatoes and stir well.

Bring to a simmer, then add the beans, drained, and stir. Add the chard leaves, cut into ribbons 1/2-inch (1.25 cm) wide and stir. It is fine if the chard leaves have water clinging to them. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the chard is nice and tender, adding some or all of the bean cooking liquid to make a (rather dense) soup or, if you prefer, some water or vegetable broth.

Adjust salt and serve immediately.

Serving options:

1. The original recipe suggests serving the soup with croutons.
2. I have toasted a couple of small sliced of bread, put those on the bottom of a bowl and ladled the zimino on top (like in the photo on this page).
3. As you can see from the photo above, in my earlier rendition, I served the zimino with some freshly grated cheese sprinkled on the surface.
4. The last option is a suggestion for repurposing leftovers and it deserves a post of its own, so be patient for a couple of days and then you'll find out.

I am not sure Rachel Samstat would like my zimino di fagioli, since it is something quite different from the dishes she describes in the book. On the other hand, considering how much misery living in her "set" has caused, maybe she ought to consider a change of scenery and a change of cuisine.

This is my contribution to the current edition of Cook the Books, hosted by Simona of briciole (that would be me). You can find the guidelines for participating in the event here, and here is the announcement. This post contains the roundup of the event.

I am also submitting this to My Legume Love Affair 53, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by Simona of briciole (that would be me — again). This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

zimino di fagioli

or launch the zimino di fagioli audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

soup, beans, chard, mushrooms, Italian recipe

fagioli alla salvia col miglio / beans with sage and millet

These beans were excellent, an example of minimalist perfection.

I had a hard time coming up with a title for the post: this dish is not really a salad, nor a soup, nor a stew. However, in the end, names are not as important as flavor, which in this case is very interesting.

We start with the beans. I have made this recipe with two kinds of beans from my pantry:

• speckled bayo (photo top and above, recently featured in this soup)
• Paul's mix (photo below and bottom, and also in this photo post)

Both come from Warren Creek Farms, producer of outstanding organic beans.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for fagioli alla salvia col miglio

How to cook dry beans
The way I cook beans for further use comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). After soaking half a cup of dry beans for several hours or overnight in enough water to cover them by about an inch (I use two cups), empty the whole bowl into a saucepan and add

• Half of a small onion (or a quarter of a medium one), halved
• A bay leaf
• A small clove of garlic, sliced
• A couple of sprigs of fresh parsley

Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are ready. How long this takes depends on the type of beans and their freshness. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.

Then we have millet, an ancient grain, which is gluten free. On the right, you see hulled millet in its natural state. On the left, you see the same millet after being toasted. The toasting step takes only a few minutes and it is worth the small effort: toasting gives millet a deeper, earthier flavor.

How to cook millet
For this dish, I used 1/4 cup uncooked millet. Of course, you can cook more and take what you need, saving the rest for another dish. Warm up a skillet on medium heat, then add the millet and toast for a few minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning. You will hear the millet pop (this is half the fun of toasting grains).

Take millet off the heat and pour into a pan with 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil and cook, covered, for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat but keep the lid on for another 5 minutes. Add a pinch of sea salt and fluff with a fork.

Putting it all together
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup beans of choice (for ex., cannellini, canario, speckled bayo), prepared as explained above, plus their cooking liquid
• 1/4 cup hulled millet, prepared as explained above
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• A small onion or a shallot, finely chopped
• A large clove of garlic, thinly sliced (2 if small)
• 3-4 leaves of fresh sage, thinly sliced
• A handful of kale blossoms, optional (but recommended, both as a color and as a texture accent)
• Sea salt and freshly milled black pepper, to taste

You can prepare beans and millet ahead. The final assembly takes a short time, which makes this dish ideal for a quick lunch or dinner (pranzo o cena).

Warm up the olive oil in a saucepan, then add the onion and stir well. After a couple of minutes, add the garlic and sage and stir. After a couple more minutes, add the kale blossoms, if using. Let cook over gentle heat until the onion is translucent. Add the cooked beans with their cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Simmer for a couple of minutes to blend the flavors. Add the cooked millet and stir well. Make sure everything is nice and hot, then adjust salt and pepper, give a good final stir, take the pan off the heat and serve immediately.

This simple dish packs a lot of flavor.

This is my first contribution to Cooking With Seeds: Rye or Millet, an event created by Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes and hosted this month by Simona of briciole (that is, me).

This post contains the roundup of the event.

This recipes goes also to Jagruti's event Know Your Flours Series: Millet Flour hosted at Torviewtoronto.

The beans make this dish suitable for My Legume Love Affair 50 the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by the creator herself.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

fagioli alla salvia col miglio

or launch the fagioli alla salvia col miglio audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

beans, millet

minestra di fagioli, pollo e pasta all'uovo / bean, chicken and egg pasta soup

chicken soup meets beans and egg pasta

There is no wrong that a good homemade chicken soup can't right. And even without a wrong to make right, a steaming bowl of chicken soup brings a smile to the steamed face.

This soup has three elements:

• chicken stock/broth, the making of which gives you also some boiled chicken
• beans
  
• pasta all'uovo (egg pasta) cut into short tagliatelle

And the three elements can be made at different times and then brought together. Once they are available, putting together the soup requires a short amount of time.

How to make stock/broth
What I call stock/broth is made not only with the trimmings and carcass of a roasted chicken, but also a bag of trimmings I buy from the same provider of the chicken, Shakefork Community Farm. Besides selling whole chicken, they sell breasts and thighs sepately so they have trimmings that they bag and sell for stock. These trimmings have some meat attached, so I call what I make with them stock/broth to indicate that more meat than usual goes into its preparation. (In the past, I have asked our local grocery store for chicken trimmings and I got something similar.) The recipe I use is the same as for chicken stock. I also use a vegetable trimmings to make stock and stock/broth like dark green portion of leeks, corn cobs (what's left after you remove the kernels), roasted pumpkin or winter squash skin (what's left after you scoop out the pulp), etc.

Once the stock/broth is ready, I retrieve all the meat which at this point separates easily from the bone. This step, for which I use my hands, requires a bit of care to avoid leaving in the meat small pieces of bone. The meat has enough flavor to go well into a soup. Plus there is no way I'd discard it. I let the strained stock/broth rest in the refrigerator overnight, skim the fat at the top, then freeze some and use the rest in the following few days.

speckled bayo beans

The beans come from my usual provider, mentioned several times before, more recently in this photo post.

How to cook dry beans
The way I cook beans for further use comes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (Beans with Aromatics). After soaking half a cup of dry beans for several hours or overnight in enough water to cover them by about an inch (I use two cups), empty the whole bowl into a saucepan and add

• Half of a small onion (or a quarter of a medium one), halved
• A bay leaf
• A small clove of garlic, sliced
• A couple of sprigs of fresh parsley

Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for five minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are ready. How long this takes depends on the type of beans and their freshness. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.

The third element is pasta all'uovo. I make a small batch of it  using one egg, as in this recipe, then cut it into a sort of short tagliatelle.

All together now
Ingredients:

• 2 cups homemade chicken stock/broth (prepared as explained above)
  
• 1 cup of chicken pieces retrieved once the stock/broth has cooled
• 1/2 cup speckled bayo beans, or other beans of choice (prepared as explained above), and their cooking liquid
  
• A small batch of pasta all'uovo made using one egg and cut into 1/2-inch wide and 2-3 inch-long strips
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• sea salt and freshly milled pepper, to taste

Add the chicken and the beans and their liquid to the stock/broth and bring to a simmer, while you cook the pasta in salted boiling water. It will take just a few minutes to cook. Drain the pasta and add to the soup. Add some hot water or stock/broth to bring the soup to the desired consistency. Turn off the heat, sprinkle parsley on the soup, give it a good stir and serve immediately.

Of course, you can make this recipe with chicken broth and pieces of cooked chicken you have on hand. The basic idea is to create a nice soup with leftovers and items often discarded before fully used.

The beans make this soup perfect for My Legume Love Affair 49 the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by Simona of briciole (yes, that's me). This post contains the roundup of the event.

And I am sending this soup to Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays, a weekly event created by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

minestra di fagioli, pollo e pasta all'uovo

or launch the minestra di fagioli, pollo e pasta all'uovo audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

beans, pasta, chicken, soup

minestra d'orzo e borlotti

barley and borlotti soup

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

barley and borlotti soup with a colorful twist

Often the colors in a dish are a good part of its appeal, but other times there is a disconnect: the dish doesn't attract the eyes, yet its flavor is excellent. As I was cooking the soup in the photo, I was already dreading the camera session. "But the soup looks nice," some of you may object. Not only that, it has also the nice earthy flavor of grains and beans, deepened by roasted tomatoes. Here is the story of how I turned this challenge into an opportunity.

fresh borlotti beans

The soup starts with the pretty pattern of color of borlotti (cranberry beans). The ones in the photo come from Warren Creek Farms (recently mentioned in this post). The season of fresh borlotti is very short, so I make a large purchase, then freeze the shelled beans for later use. In this case, the reason for taking out of the freezer a bag was a recipe for minestra di farro e fagioli that I found on the Accademia Italiana della Cucina site as I was looking for a dish to contribute to the current edition of the Italian tour, which has stopped in the southern region of Molise. The English version of the recipe is available in the book by the Academy called La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy.

Farro is an old cereal grain that has become popular in recent years. Rather than farro, for my version of the soup I have used locally grown hull-less barley (which is whole grain) from my grain CSA (see below for a brief description of the various types of barley). The third important ingredient is a cup of my roasted strained tomatoes.

ready to be picked

It is well-known that cooking divests pretty borlotti of their attractive attire. Then, cooked barley is unrepentantly brown. And the strained tomatoes cooked into the soup can do nothing to create variety in the color palette. Enter kale flower buds. I work hard to keep up with my jungle of kale, but if I am away for a few days, a number of plants bolt and I have flower buds, which are not only edible, but tasty and, most relevantly in this case, colorful. I picked a generous handful (the flower buds and the tip of the stem), sautéed them lightly and voilà, my soup, now more interesting not only to the eyes, but to the palate as well, was ready for a satisfying photo-op.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup hull-less barley, rinsed well [the original recipe uses farro]
• 9 oz. fresh, shelled borlotti (in my case, thawed) [I think that fresh pinto beans would also work well here]
• Aromatics to cook the beans: half of a small onion (or a quarter of a medium one), halved, a bay leaf, a small clove of garlic, sliced, and a couple of sprigs of fresh parsley
• Olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• A pinch of chili pepper flakes
• 1 cup roasted strained tomatoes (thawed, since they were made last year and frozen)
• 1 cup homemade light chicken stock or vegetable option
• Sea salt, to taste
• A generoud handful of kale flower buds

Warm up a skillet over medium heat. Toast the barley in the skillet, shaking the skillet or stirring the barley with a wooden spoon to prevent it from getting scorched. After a short while, the popping starts. Keep shaking the skillet or stirring the barley until the popping subsides (not all the groats will pop). Let the barley cool briefly then put it in a saucepan with 1.5 cups of water, bring to a boil and cook, covered, until tender (about 45 minutes).

Place beans and aromatics in a saucepan and add enough water to cover well. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are tender. Let them cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them.

In a soup pot, heat some olive oil, then add garlic and pepper flakes and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring, until the garlic is golden. Add the tomatoes and cook for eight minutes or so, then add both barley and beans with their cooking liquids, plus the stock or broth. Add also some water, depending on the consistency of the soup you prefer. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for a few minutes to bring together the flavors. Season with salt to taste.

In the meantime, warm up some olive oil in a skillet and sauté kale buds for a few minutes until crisp-tender. Ladle soup into serving bowls and place a spoonful of kale buds on top. Serve immediately.

Hulless (or hull-less) barley is a type of barley in which the tough inedible outer hull adheres losely to the kernel, so that when this barley is harvested, the outer hull usually falls off. Because hulless barley requires minimal cleaning, most of the brand and endosperm is left intact and the germ is present.

Hulled barley is barley that has been minimally processed to remove only the tough inedible outer hull.

Either type of barley is whole grain (integrale) and therefore a healthy choice. Among other health benefits, whole-grain barley may help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease (see FDA ruling on labeling of barley products).

This is my submission for the eighth installment of the Abbecedario culinario d'Italia (Italian Culinary ABC), an event organized by Trattoria MuVarA that will bring us to visit all the 20 regions of Italy using the alphabet as guide. I come Isernia (Molise) is hosted by Rosa Maria of Torte e dintorni. On this page there is the list of contributions to the event.

And I am sending this hearty soup to Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays, a weekly event created by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. This post contains the roundup of the event.

Finally, I am sending this to My Legume Love Affair 48, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by Valerie of A Canadian Foodie. This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

minestra d'orzo e borlotti

or launch the minestra d'orzo e borlotti audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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soup, barley, beans, Italian recipe

minestra d'orzo e borlotti

minestra d'orzo e borlotti con sorpresa

Spesso i colori in un piatto costituiscono una buona parte dell'attrazione, ma altre volte c'è una discrepanza: il piatto non attrae la vista, eppure il sapore è ottimo. Mentre preparavo la minestra della foto, temevo già il doverla fotografare. "Ma la minestra è molto attraente," qualcuno di voi obietterà. Non solo, ha anche un sapore rustico di cereali e fagioli, reso più intenso dai pomodori arrosto. Ecco come ho trasformato una sfida in un'opportunità.

borlotti freschi "made in California"

La minestra comincia con la superficie variegata dei borlotti. Quelli della foto vengono da Warren Creek Farms (come quelli in questo post). La stagione dei borlotti freschi è molto breve e quindi ne compro una buona quantità, poi congelo i fagioli sgranati per uso futuro. In questo caso, il motivo per tirarne fuori dal freezer un sacchetto è stata una ricetta per minestra di farro e fagioli che ho trovato sul sito dell'Accademia Italiana della Cucina mentre ero alla ricerca di un piatto da contribuire al nostro tour delle regioni italiane che in questo periodo sta facendo tappa nel Molise, regione, lo ammetto, a me purtroppo sconosciuta.

Il farro è diventato alquanto popolare, ma invece del farro, per la mia versione della minestra ho usato orzo mondo (che è integrale) di produzione locale che ricevo nella mia cassettina dei cereali. Il terzo ingrediente importante: i miei pomodori arrosto passati.

pronti da raccogliere

È noto che la cottura spoglia i borlotti del loro bell'abito e l'orzo cotto è marroncino senza via d'uscita. La passata di pomodori cotta insieme alla minestra non può far nulla per creare varietà nel colore. Entrano i germogli di cavolo riccio. Cerco di tenere testa alla mia giungla di cavolo riccio, ma se sono assente per qualche giorno, su qualche pianta spuntano i germogli, che non solo sono commestibili, ma sono saporiti, e, importante in questo caso, danno una nota di colore. Ne ho raccolti una generosa manciata (i germogli e un pezzetto di stelo), li ho fatti saltare in padella e voilà, la mia minestra, ora più interessante non solo agli occhi ma anche al palato, ha posato per me con successo.

Ingredienti:

• 100 g orzo integrale (orzo mondo), sciacquato con cura
• 250 g borlotti (nel mio caso, scongelati)
• Odori per cuocere i fagioli: mezza cipolla piccola (o un quarto di cipolla media), una fogliolina d'alloro, un piccolo spicchio d'aglio tagliato a fettine, un paio di steli di prezzemolo
• Olio d'oliva
• 2 piccoli spicchi d'aglio tritati
  
• un poco di peperoncino
• 240 ml  pomodori arrosto passati (scongelati, dal momento che li ho fatti l'anno scorso e poi surgelati)
• 240 ml brodo di pollo o vegetale fatto in casa
• Sale fino
• Una generosa manciata di germogli di cavolo riccio

Scaldare una padella su fuoco medio e versarci l'orzo. Scuotere la padella o muovere l'orzo con un cucchiaio di legno per evitare che i chicchi brucino. Dopo un po', col calore i chicchi cominceranno a scoppiettare. Continuare a muovere la padella o l'orzo fino a quando lo scoppiettio diminuisce (non tutti i chicchi fanno "pop"). Far intiepidire leggermente l'orzo, poi metterlo in una pentola con 350 ml d'acqua. Portare a bollore e cuocere, coperta, fino a quando l'orzo non sia ben tenero (circa 45 minuti).

Mettere i fagioli e gli odori in una pentola con abbastanza acqua da coprire bene. Portare a bollore e cuocere, coperta, fino a quando i fagioli non sono teneri. Lasciar raffreddare i fagioli nel loro brodo, poi scartare gli odori.

In una pentola da minestra scaldare dell'olio d'oliva, poi aggiungere aglio e peperoncino e cuocere per un paio di minuti, mescolando, fino a quando l'aglio è biondo. Versare nella pentola i pomodori e cuocere per otto minuti, poi aggiungere orzo e borlotti con il loro liquido di cottura, e il brodo. Aggiungere anche dell'acqua, a seconda di come vi piaccia densa la minestra. Portare a bollore e cuocere a fuoco dolce per alcuni minuti per mettere insieme i sapori. Salare a seconda del gusto.

Nel frattempo scaldare dell'olio d'oliva in una padella e farvi saltare i germogli di cavolo riccio per alcuni minuti, fino a quando siano "croccanteneri" (parola di mia invenzione). Versare della minestra nei piatti fondi e disporre un cucchiaio colmo di germogli sulla superficie. Servire immediatamente.

Questo è il mio contributo all'Abbecedario culinario d'Italia, un evento organizzato dalla Trattoria MuVarA che ci porterà a visitare tutte le regioni italiane utilizzando come guida l'alfabeto. I come Isernia è ospitata da Rosa Maria di Torte e dintorni. Su questa pagina troverete la lista dei contributi all'evento.

Propongo questa minestra anche all'edizione di Giugno dell'evento Salutiamoci, ospitato da Lo di Galline2ndlife che ha scelto come tema l'orzo.